Aug 31, 2006 05:30 PM
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Firstly, Acharya is not a run-of-the-mill gangster movie. Though having a gangster backdrop, it distinctly stays away from violence. It’s rare to find these sorts of movies and hence makes it easy to excuse the mistakes irrespective of their magnitude.
Yadhunandhan (Vignesh) is a devoutly religious man with no home or job. He joins Mayakkal’s (Vadivukarasi) gang with whom he develops a brotherly relationship. The greed of power and money invokes a tussle in between Mayakkaal and Koorumaathi (another gangster) in which Mayakkaal is killed. Shattered Yadhu, takes revenge of Koorumathi. This arouses a bloodshed battle among the gangsters. When things go beyond control, the Police threaten Thevar (Nasser), who is the godfather all the gangs, to either get arrested or agree for encounters of his gangs to which Thevar chooses the later option. Knowing this, Yadhu plans to turn tables and teach Thevar a lesson.
Acharya is clean and stays truthful to its introductory disclaimer which states that there are no cheap commercial compromises in the movie. Yes, there are no build-up songs, no item numbers; no blood bath and more importantly no punch dialogues. Violence is kept to minimal to the most part. Even the killings of Mayakkal and Koorumathi which are the integral part of the movie are indicative and not explained in gory detail. There are only a couple of apparent gun-shootings which are anyway unavoidable.
As you may have noticed, the character names are full of nativity. By choosing these names, the director almost succeeds in making the events look real and to some extent he also manages to cover up the lack of in-depth characterizations, which is anyway exposed in no time.
Acharya goes with uniformity in acting department. Known actors performing to the best and new-comers spoiling the show with silly overacting (and sometimes not acting at all). Vignesh pursues his never ending comeback struggle. He amply fits for the character, looking innocent and underplaying to the most part. The way he walks with his hands folded at the back, shows his homework on body language. (I’ve seen this style of walking prevalent among innocent villagers.) But his character calls for little histrionics (or antics) which means his scope of acting is limited to appearing innocent. (To summarize, Acharya is no where near to boost his career)
Vadivukarasi looks dignified in a role that could be portrayed otherwise. I expected a typical scornful and foul-mouthed Vadivukarasi but she too underplays it with a respectful performance. Nasser is typical and convincing. Ganja Karuppu provides some genuine smiles. He is a key character in the movie and his scenes are not a separate comedy track.
Songs are surprisingly non distractive and are ingrained in the background. However, they are also overused as transitional fillers more than often. The initial childhood scenes and the first jail experience hold good for transitional songs, but the scenes where Vignesh gets along with the gang should have been detailed since it is a fertile ground for character building scenes. After acquainting with each character, we expect a bit more of characterizations but it’s quite lacking throughout the movie. For example, the relationship between Yadhu and Mangai, Thevar and Pammaathaan, misgivings of Saranraj etc. There are also some logical contrivances such as, how did Yadhu get education, how did he learn driving in spite of his poverty, which are left unexplained.
The ending is unexpected but stays inline with the concept that the protagonist loses all his relationship to destiny right from the beginning to the end. Acharya is a modest attempt to bring out yet another facet of underworld. It nearly succeeds in its effort only to be letdown by shallow characterization.
